Tag Archives: Erykah Badu

Erykah Badu‘s “Baduzim” is one of those classic album that never loses its charm. Some 16 years after its release, Booty Fade have offered up their take on the impossibly good debut single “On & On,” and the results are simply marvellous. The pair keep the mellow vibe of the original, and provide a smooth mix that’ll be sure to delight you.

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Janelle Monae has just announced the follow-up to her excellent debut album ‘The ArchAndroid’, one of my favorite releases of 2010, is on the way! While there is no release date for ‘Electric Lady’ yet, we will get our first taste very soon!

Much to our excitement, the first single ‘Q.U.E.E.N’ features none other than the fabulous Erykah Badu and will be dropping on JanelleMonae.com on April 22nd. I’m way beyond excited for this collaboration, I can only imagine the brilliance of these two amazing artists combined!

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I’ve been on a major Erykah Badu kick these past few days, and I’m always ready for new music from her so I was excited to see her name attached to the just released ‘Heaven For The Sinner‘ from NYC-based producer Bonobo. The beat is a little hard to get your head around at the beginning, but it quickly turns into a dreamy little tune.

The single can be found on Bonobo’s new album ‘The North Borders’

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Last night at the BET Honors Erykah Badu paid tribute to the one and only Chaka Khan with a stunning cover of the classic ‘What Cha’ Gonna Do For Me.‘ I loved Erykah’s take on ‘Stay‘ which is found on the flawless ‘Live‘ album and this performance is just as great.

It’s obvious they have a mutual love and respect for one another, and when you put them together you get magic!

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When we heard that psychedelic rock band The Flaming Lips & Erykah Badu were teaming up we must have missed the memo that Siri would also be featured. Yes, that Siri – Apple’s iPhone virtual Girl Friday, she appears alongside Erykah and a reversed Biz Markie sample on Now I Understand.

I’m not too familiar with The Flaming Lips but I’m enjoying this introduction to them and finding myself drifting away with Erykah’s soothing vocals.

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More and more of our favorite artists are also carving out a name for themselves as DJs these days and we’re loving it! We love the music that they release as singers, and these sets give us the opportunity to check out tracks that they are feeling themselves!

At the beginning of the month, Erykah Badu aka DJ Lo Down Loretta Brown took to the decks at Le Poisson Rouge for the first night of a new monthly showcase Wax Poetics Records is running where they sync up a newcomer and one of the artists that inspires them for a night of great music.

Erykah delighted the crowd with old school joints galore, weaving between classic hip hop tunes like Regulate and Vivrate Thing and sexy soul & funk classics by the likes of folks like Rick James & Chaka Khan. She also threw in a couple of her own tunes and sang along driving the crowd crazy. If you ever get the chance to catch Lo Down Loretta Brown do her thing, I would highly recommend it. Check out the video below for a little taste…

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In my book, one of the true tests of any artist is the ability to captivate their audience with minimal fanfare. In the stripped back video for Out My Mind Just In TimeErykah Badu does precisely that. In the piece entitled Movement 1, directed by Ms Badu herself, she dances around in the dark for the entire length of the clip – so simple but mesmerizing.

Catch Erykah performing live with My Morning Jacket tonight at 9pm EST on YouTube. In other news, she tweeted the other day that she was in the studio! Might another album be on the way soon?

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These lists are always insanely difficult for me, but every year I attempt to have a stab at putting together a list of my favorite albums of the year. I think that 2010 was a brilliant year for music, lots of my old favorites released fabulous albums and plenty of amazing new artists blew me away with their first releases. Now without further ado, I bring you my favorite albums of the year!

Kylie Minogue – Aphrodite
When I heard that Kylie was working with frequent Madonna collaborator Stuart Price I expected great things, I just was not prepared for the insanity that was this album. When I got word Kylie would be appearing at Splash back in early June, I gathered my friends (including the fabulous Brad Stern from MuuMuse)and headed down. Our minds were blown when she premiered a megamix of never heard before songs from the upcoming album. The day after while playing my video of the event over and over again, I danced around my room in delight when I was presented with a watermarked stream of the album by the label. I played this album day in day out for months on end and I still never tire of it

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Billboard caught up with Erykah Badu aka Annie aka Analogue Girl in a Digital World at Lollapalooza this weekend. Erykah talks about why she feels her career has only just begun, why she loves the social networking platform for connecting artists with their fans (She’s a tweetaholic!) and why she is moving into making mini movies for her songs. I’m such a big fan of her work and this is a great little interview. Nice one Billboard!

p.s I caught a tweet that those funky earring type things she’s wearing are designed by her and will be available soon!

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Any chance I get to see Erykah Badu live and I’ll most certainly take it! That opportunity came again on Monday night at Roseland Ballroom with the added bonus of Janelle Monae, who I’ve been trying to see since 2008 when I missed her at Summerstage! These two together were the perfect pair (I’ve always thought of Janelle as a Mini Badu)

Questlove DJed the night, first throwing down some funky old school classics while we awaited the arrival of Janelle, one of my favorite new talents. I was expecting great things from her just based on watching her videos and live appearances over the last few weeks, I knew she was gonna kill it and she sure did! She performed some of my favorite tracks from the recently released The ArchAndroid album including Faster,Cold War, Dance or Die,Tightrope and Smile from the Metropolis: The Chase Suite EP. She is truly remarkable live and such a passionate performer – I can’t wait to see her do a full set.

After Janelle Questlove came back and continued his Hip-Hop history lesson, then cleared the stage ready for Erykah. After an impossibly long wait, with a largely pissed off crowd, in what was by that point a hot and crowded venue, she finally appeared on stage after a weirdly long intro by her band (surely 10 minutes of repeating the same few chords was not planned,) and all was forgiven. She started with some of the slower cuts from her latest release New Amerykah Part 2: Return of the Ankh and then dropping in quite a few from New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War. She didn’t forget to take it further back in the day though going as far back as 1997, including tracks from Mama’s Gun, Badiuzm and Worldwide Underground (I was more than excited she played I Want You!) Other tracks included Love Of My Life during which she worked in many old school Hip Hop numbers, the classics On & On and Appletreeand Didn’t Ya Know, a personal favorite.

Although it took her forever to get on stage, once she was there she didn’t wanna leave! Well past her curfew, a stage hand tried to boot her off “Come here and tell me, I can’t hear you” she told him from center stage, then after proclaiming she was “In trouble now!” she continued on with yet another classic! She rounded out the night with an epic performance of Solider and then got up close and personal with the crowd while singing, the one you can’t go home without hearing, Bag Lady. Unfortunately she ran out of time before she could sing Window Seat, but earlier in the night part of the video had played and she had turned back to look at it, then swung around to look at the cheering crowd with a smile on her face, so it was there in spirit!